The Devil Hunters in Remnant
by writer of things here
Summary: When the amulets separated, the portal between the two realms became unstable, sending Lady, Dante, and Vergil to another world. Unsure of where they are, an uneasy alliance forms between the three as they deal with the threat of Grimm and try to figure out how they're going to get back to their own world.
1. A Whole New World

**Hello all, I don't want to put any more A/N notes in here than is necessary so let me briefly explain what's going to happen.**

 **Do expect: A huge focus on the DMC characters, particularly their interactions with one another as well as the members of team RWBY. An all new storyline that is never before seen! This will take place alongside the events of RWBY V1-?, however it will mostly be about the DMC dream team trying to get back to their universe.**

 **Do not expect: Ships of any kind that aren't canon in the show (nor any ships regarding DMC characters). Also don't accuse of me of "hinting at ships" because there is drama between two characters. A lot of action. I find reading long drawn out action scenes to be incredibly tedious and boring, so I won't be writing them myself except when it's necessary, and if you clicked on this then you can get your action fix by playing the DMC games or watching RWBY (in a nutshell I want this story to be character driven). JNPR, SSSN, and Penny will be an absolute, incredibly minimal focus in this fic, if they appear at all. I'm not going to novelize the episodes of RWBY, because as before if you want to experience the episodes you can go watch them yourself.**

 **The only change I'm going to make to RWBY is Aura; it's threshold is undefined all throughout the show and I'm not gonna bother writing around it when I don't have plan on having many fight scenes anyways. Therefore, don't expect it to make an appearance here.**

 **Don't expect a set schedule for this fic at all. I use the title of the story in between dashes to denote scene breaks, just fyi. All that said, let's go!**

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

Arkham was defeated, and the twins of Sparda fell further into the demon world, each grabbing an amulet left behind by their mother. The sword of the legendary dark knight himself fell in between them, and Vergil rolled forward, grabbing it and pulling away from Dante. Narrowing his eyes, he saw Dante's amulet dangling around his wrist. Extending his hand he gave one simple order to his younger brother. "Give that to me."

Dante quickly put his hand behind his back. Despite the stakes, he kept a light tone and said, "No way, you got your own." It was a small joke, but he couldn't deny that somewhere in the back of his mind hoping Vergil would just let it go.

Vergil leveled his sword, the tip pointed at Dante's chest. Calmly he replied, "Well I want yours, too." He was so close to attaining his father's power, so close to attaining ultimate demonic power. Nothing would stop him, not even his brother. Dante started chuckling, shaking his head as his right hand came to rest on Rebellion. "What's so funny?"

"You know, after everything you still don't get it, do you?" Dante raised his hands in a shrug. "Pops was a powerful demon, but he wasn't the strongest. You and I just overcame that power a few minutes go, didn't we?" Dante lowered his arms to his side as Vergil's gaze narrowed. "If you ask me, it can't be worth all that much if it was overcome that easily."

"Oh please. Arkham couldn't handle that level of power; I don't think either of us would've fared so well if he had absolute control over it." Vergil responded. "I won't say it again, brother. Give that to me." He raised his hand once more.

Dante sighed. " _A demon awoke to justice and single handedly sealed the demon world away from humans._ It goes something like that, right?" When Vergil didn't respond he continued. "Sparda wasn't powerful because he was a demon, or because he was some goody two shoes, he was strong simply because he did the right thing, Vergil. No matter how hard you try, you won't be like father because you don't care about what's right and wrong. But if you did, maybe-"

"You're wasting time!" Vergil shouted, running forward and clashing with Dante. The two caught each others sword mid-swing, blood dripping from their wounds. "I tried to do the right thing, the night we first separated. I failed, because I wasn't powerful enough to overcome my enemies. I will never suffer that humiliation again."

The ground shook beneath them, and the two leapt backwards from each other. Vergil raised his hand, clenching his fist and blue swords manifested in a circle around him. "I need more power."

Dante closed his eyes, gripping the handle of sword tightly. "If that's how it's gonna be, then let's finish this. I have to stop you, even if it means killing you."

The two brothers sprinted at each other, blades clashing as they battled over which ideology was the right one; Vergil's pursuit of power, or Dante's desire to do the right thing regardless of how difficult it was. But their fight was cut short; both brothers stopped as the air around them seemed to hum, then in a flash everything suddenly went white.

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

When Dante came to his senses, there was an annoying ringing in his ears that persisted for what felt like several minutes. He pressed his hands over his ears and slowed his breathing, trying to get a grip on what had happened. The last thing he remembered was fighting with Vergil and now… Slowly opening his eyes and sitting up as the ringing faded, he took in his surroundings.

"Hmm… Guess I'm not in Kansas anymore." It was the middle of the day now, and Dante found himself in the middle of the forest. Which was weird considering there wasn't a forest anywhere near Capulet city, and if he wasn't in the demon world then he could be anywhere on Earth. "Just my luck." He muttered, turning around and walking away. He came to sudden stop when he saw that Vergil was unconscious on the ground a few feet away, the Force Edge still in his hand. He put his hand on Rebellion, not sure if he should attack.

His choice was made for him when Vergil woke up a couple of seconds later, putting his hands over his head in a manner similar to how Dante had a moment ago. Then he stood up slowly, and made eye contact with Dante. "What just happened?"

Dante lowered his hand from his sword. "Beats me." He said with a shrug. "Guess the demon realm threw us out when the portal closed." He took in his surroundings again, sighing when he couldn't see any high-rises nor the Temen-Ni-Gru anywhere in sight. "Though I don't know where we've ended up." He faced Vergil again, and then jumped in the air with a flip as his brother swung at him with the Yamato and fired several spectral swords at him. Landing on the ground, he readied Beowulf and took a fighting stance. "Alright!" But Vergil merely looked past him and sheathed his sword. Dante turned to look behind him.

On the ground, something was disintegrating behind him. A slightly large demon, by the looks of it. Evaporating slowly, too. "Never seen a demon die like that." Dante said.

"I haven't encountered a demon that I couldn't sense." Vergil added. Dante's brow furrowed, his brother was right. Whether in Hell or on Earth, most demons and devils gave off an ominous vibe that could be sensed by other demons, an ability that Dante was luckily able to tap into thanks to his demonic heritage. But he hadn't sensed this creature at all, and it may have gotten the drop on him if Vergil hadn't spotted it.

"Well, don't think I owe you one." Dante retorted. And for the second time in three minutes, Dante wasn't sure if he should draw his sword and attack.

"Hey, are you guys doing alright?"

And once again his choice was was made for him when two girls about their age walked through the brush and into the small clearing. The first girl was smiling, with long yellow hair and lilac eyes, wearing two yellow gauntlets around her wrists. The second girl was dress mostly in black, with amber eyes and a bow on top of her head. A sword was strapped to her back, though when she got closer Dante could make out a trigger and trigger guard, and he realized she must've had a rifle with her.

"We're fine." Vergil answered evenly as he assessed the two girls in front of him.

"Awesome. Glad to see you two have partnered up. We heard an explosion nearby and came to investigate." The yellow girl said. "Oh, I'm Yang!" She extended a hand, and Dante reached forward and shook it.

"Blake." The other girl said, keeping her arms crossed.

"I'm Dante." The younger brother supplied. "What was that about partners?" He asked, glancing at Vergil.

"Ozpin put us in a straight line that extended fifty people down, and then spoke in a calm voice to just a few of us." Yang said with a laugh, placing a hand against her forehead. "The first person you make eye contact with is your partner for the next four years. Now come on, we got to go find those relics." She started walking, but when she passed Vergil, she stopped and said, "By the way, I haven't got your name yet."

"Vergil."

"Did you hear that Vergil? We're gonna be stuck together for the next four years!" Dante said with a laugh, wrapping an arm around his older twin.

Vergil quickly pushed him away with a curt "Get off." and the two started following behind Yang and Blake.

Dante tapped his brother with his elbow, then leaned in and whispered, "So when do we ditch these two and get back to fighting?"

"Hmm. I'm thinking-" Before Vergil could fully respond, another loud explosion came from somewhere ahead of them.

"Sounds like someone else is fighting a Grimm! Let's go!" Yang said, then she and Blake took off ahead of them. Dante and Vergil made eye contact with each other, then Dante shrugged and took off after them. The four of them ran for a little under a minute, before coming across a strange sight.

Lady was up in the tree branches, her white shirt clearly contrasting with the green and brown of the forest. Another large, black creature was at the base of the tree trying to climb up to her and now that Dante could get a good look at it, it seemed to be like a large, spiky bear. Lady pulled the pin on a grenade and let it casually drop to the forest floor, creating another large boom. The creature's back legs were gone but it wasn't done fighting yet.

Yang ran forward, swinging her arms as though she were in fist fight with the creature, which was at least 40 feet away. Dante's eyes widened when he saw projectiles launch forward, making contact with the creature and finishing it off. Running forward, he saw smoke rising forward from her gauntlets, and that there was an ammo belt running between two layers of metal. "Where'd you get a weapon like that?" He asked.

"Made them myself." Yang said, pointing a thumb at her chest proudly. "It only took me three months, too." She leaning forward, peering at the sword and rocket launcher on Dante's back. "I see someone's old school."

Dante shrugged. "Nothing wrong with the classics." He said with a grin.

"Nothing's classy about you."

Dante and Yang turned, and they saw that Blake had gone on ahead to help Lady, and the two were now standing before them. "Glad to see your attitude made the trip, too."

"Hmph. Where are we, anyways?" Lady asked, and she missed the confused glance that Blake and Yang shared. When Dante just shrugged, she tilted her head. "I'd like my weapon back, if you don't mind." She held out her hands, taking the weapon back when Dante pulled it off his back.

"So… what's your name?" Blake asked as Lady inspected her weapon.

"Lady." Was all she responded with.

"... Your name is _Lady_?" Yang asked, holding back a laugh.

"This one dubbed me with it, and since…" She halted, not about to divulge her troubles to these strangers. "Well anyways, that's what I'm going with from now on." She said resolutely.

"Fair enough, I guess. Have you partnered up with anyone yet?" Yang asked, sensing the seriousness behind her words.

Lady turned to Dante, who shrugged and shook his head. Turning to Yang, she asked her, "What are you talking about?"

Yang sighed, and Blake smiled a bit, then stepped forward to explain in her partners place. "Our partners are apparently the first people we make eye contact with, as long as they aren't partnered with someone already. Then we have to go find the abandoned ruins in the north, retrieve a relic, and make it back to Beacon cliff before nightfall. Since Dante's already got a partner, you can come with us and partner up with someone who's free."

Dante felt himself freeze when Lady turned back to him and asked who he was partnered with, then went rigid as Vergil came up beside him, having strolled up to them at a slow pace.

Lady instantly drew her guns and aimed at Vergil, causing Blake and Yang to both jump back in shock. Dante quickly grabbed her wrists and pointed the guns at the ground, but Lady ignored him as she glared at Vergil. "What are you doing here?"

"Took a wrong turn, it seems." He replied dryly.

"Look, we're all in the same boat right now, so we may as well get along until we figure out what's going on. Then we can all get back to killing each other later, alright?" Dante asked.

"You can't be serious!" Lady shouted.

"All three of you, knock it off!" The three turned to Blake, who had gotten in between Vergil and Lady. "If you don't calm down, we're only going to attract more Grimm. And we don't need to fight the Grimm to get through initiation, alright?"

Lady glowered at Dante, then turned her attention back to Vergil. "You try anything and I will end you."

Vergil wasn't one to boast, but even so found it hard not to mouth off some retort to the girl. He simply rolled his eyes, then said, "I'll play nice if you will."

Gritting her teeth, Lady put her guns away, and then turned to Blake and Yang when they relaxed their stances a bit. "Lead the way, you two."

With an uncertain glance, Yang and Blake started walking forward, and the three started following them, Vergil on Dante's left and Lady on his right. "I thought he was dead." Lady muttered, turning and looking up at Dante.

"I wasn't sure where he was." Dante admitted. "But then he showed up while I was in the middle of fighting Arkham and helped me kill him. Then we started fighting each other, but then got zapped here."

Lady was silent for a moment before she told him, "I killed Arkham, not you two."

Dante laughed. "No, Verg and I put a bullet through that overgrown zit."

"Whatever you did wasn't enough. I found him at the top of the tower, and _I_ put a magazine through his head." It was hard to get the words out, but it was the truth. No matter how much she hated him or how evil he was, Arkham had been the last of her family. Dante didn't respond, pursing his lips together as he thought. They all three fell into silence as they walked, and after several minutes of silence they eventually emerged into large clearing, much larger than the one that Dante and Vergil had appeared in when they'd woken up. And at the far side…

"Are those the relics?" Blake asked, then she and Yang started running, crossing the distance in a few seconds.

"Chess pieces?" Lady asked when they'd caught up. They were displayed on top of broken pillars, but they definitely looked new and deliberately placed. She turned to Dante, who shrugged and grabbed one of the black knight pieces. After inspecting it a bit, he placed it in his back pocket. "Wonder what the deal is…" Lady muttered, grabbing the other black knight piece. She saw Yang stuff the white knight piece in her pocket, and Lady did the same with her piece.

"Guess we go back to Ozpin and let him know that we've accomplished our mission." Yang said. "Come on, let's go."

"Uh, Yang?" Blake asked, pointing up at the sky. Everyone turned to look skyward, and saw that a girl in white was falling, a large bird shrieking as it flew overhead. "How in the world did she climb on top of a Nevermore?"

Yang let out an intelligent, "Uh…" Before the treeline seemed to explode, a girl in black and red appearing and seemingly getting chased by a massive scorpion the size of a house.

"Did she just get chased all the way here by a Deathstalker?" Blake asked.

Dante stepped forward, spreading his arms and bracing himself as he got in position to catch the falling girl in white. The girl drew her weapon, and suddenly several platforms appeared beneath her, and she used them to control her fall by angling them and jumping off them. She landed a few feet in front of Dante, then scowled at him and said, "Not on your life," before turning around and observing the other girl.

"Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap!" She shrieked as she ran. "Incoming!"

"Ruby?!" Yang shouted, completely stunned.

Suddenly large feathers the size of streetlights rained down on the girl, and everyone looked up to see that the Nevermore had returned and was now attacking the brunette. "Ruby, get out of there!" Yang ran forward, but the giant scorpion was closing in faster than she could. Dante started after her, but the girl in white suddenly rushed forward faster than either of them. Looking at the ground, Dante could see the same glyphs from before under her feet and along her path.

" _Alright, I'm officially lost."_ He thought to himself.

Yang, Ruby, and her partner introduced as Weiss all came back together after Weiss froze the tail of the creature in ice. Ruby was introduced to be the younger sister of Yang, and then the seven came up with a plan. "We need to get back to Beacon Cliff. There's no point in fighting these things."

"We might be able to lose the scorpion, but that bird won't be lost so easily." Lady pointed out.

The Deathstalker broke free, then started after the group. "I have a plan. Can you three take care of the Deathstalker?" Ruby asked.

"Leave it to us!" Dante said, turning and heading towards his target, Lady and Vergil following after him. He heard Ruby explaining her plan to the other three girls, but Lady spoke up, drowning out the other girls voice.

"Get it's face open and I'll blow it away." She crouched down, readying the Kalina Ann and letting the other two continue ahead of her.

"Alright. Vergil, take care of its tail." Dante said, summoning Agni & Rudra.

Vergil said nothing, but placed his hands on the Yamato, charging up demonic energy within it and holding steady as Dante approached the creature. It clicked its pincers together, then swiped at him with its left, then its right, then thrust its tail forward to strike. Dante easily avoided both swipes, and Vergil used a judgement cut to prevent to tail from reach Dante. Pulling the twin swords off his back, Dante summoned a storm of fire and wind, causing the creature to reel backwards. Seeing its face exposed, Dante jumped upwards, then a moment later a rocket came and exploded on the creatures face, leaving it cracked. Seeing his opportunity, Dante summoned Beowulf and let his foot fly forward, landing squarely on the creatures face and breaking the bone armor. Another judgement cut prevented the tail from getting to him, and Dante pulled Rebellion of his back and thrust it into the creatures exposed face. A third judgement cut severed the creatures tail, and a rainstorm of spectral swords embedded themselves in the creature face as well, killing it. It evaporated, and Dante picked his sword out of its remains.

"That was it?" He asked with a grin, turning back around to look at the other two. He let out a whistle when he saw that the large bird had been pinned against the cliff, then got dragged up it. As it reached the top, its head came clean off its body and evaporated as well.

Dante sheathed his sword on his back and the three started heading towards the cliff where the other four girls were.


	2. Questions

A/N

I got a guest review asking for a scene where Agni & Rudra speak and freak out the RWBY characters, and the answer I have is that that would be a "maybe", because the swords aren't going to talk around Dante, and Dante isn't going to let the weapons go easily, nor does he have them equipped at all times. If I can work it organically into the story, then sure, but if I can't, then I can't and that's that. I forgot to put this in the first authors note, but if you see any mistakes at all let me know. I can proofread the story a hundred times and still miss things. On with the story.

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

After the fighting was over and everyone met up together, Ruby explained how she'd ended up getting chased by a Deathstalker. After meeting up with Weiss, the two had run into some Beowolves, fought them off, and decided to hitch a ride on the Nevermore that carried them pretty swiftly over the forest (and causing Yang to wonder why she hadn't thought of doing the same thing). Ruby elected to jump ship, and Weiss quickly followed suit. Unfortunately, Ruby had landed on top of the Deathstalker and thus a chase ensued, leading to the fight between the seven warriors and the two Grimm.

"How on Earth did you get on top of the bird?" Lady had asked in disbelief after Ruby finished her explanation.

Ruby gave Lady a weird look. "I jumped?" She answered, looking back between Yang and Weiss. "It was only on top of a tree, so…"

"And you meant to say 'on Remnant'." Weiss said to Lady.

Before Lady could respond, Blake stepped forward and said, "We need to make it back to Beacon Cliff, the sun will set in a few hours and we don't want to fail initiation and be stuck out here all night."

"Yeah. Let's get a move on. It should be just a straight shot south of here." Ruby lead the way, followed by her partner and Blake and Yang.

The other three started after them, but kept a bit of distance between them so they could speak. "So, wonder what this initiation thing is about." Dante wondered aloud, kicking a stone in front of him as they walked.

"Those girls were definitely prepared for battle." Vergil muttered. "And they didn't seem at all apprehensive about battling monsters."

Lady kept her gaze focused in front of her, but didn't say anything. _"Initiation into what? Why are they ready, willing, and able to fight monsters so young? Not that I'm one to talk, but they way they acted, it felt like doing so was just a normal part of their lives…"_ Before the death of her mother, Lady had lived a normal life in a normal city. Demons were just the stuff of movies and scary stories, and horror movies were not something Lady had ever had a real interest in. But then everything changed, and if she wasn't training to fight demons, she was researching every urban legend and historical account, trying to figure out how to track down her father so she could avenger her mother. Then in her travels, the tower had appeared before her, almost like a physical manifestation of how big the events of her life were. _"But those girls didn't seem to think anything special of the demons we just fought… Their weapons are totally different from anything I've ever seen… And what kind of initiation are they going through?"_ Doubts and questions continued to fly through Lady's head, and for once she was uncertain what she was going to do.

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

Luckily the few demons that got in the way of the group weren't able to stand up to seven armed and ready warriors, so Lady's confusion was able to run rampant as they traveled. She refrained from flat out asking for answers from Yang or Ruby since there was this nagging feeling that was _really_ far out of the loop in this situation. So, silence settled between her, Dante, and Vergil, while Ruby or one of the others would occasionally give an order to be on alert or to follow after one of them. The four girls seemed more focused on getting out of the forest, which agreed with Lady far more than asking confusing questions.

It took about an hour and a half to get back to Beacon Cliff, and when they did Ruby zipped away faster than seemed physically possible, while Weiss sprinted after her and Blake and Yang followed at a slower pace. Looking up at the cliffs, they could see that there several other people already there and waiting for them. "So, what's our cover story?" Dante asked, placing a hand on his chin. "I get the odd feeling we've stumbled into something we're not a part of."

"I don't think we're supposed to be here at all." Lady said. "I mean, demons seem to be expected and they've got a bunch of kids fighting them? Where the hell are we?"

"Those creatures aren't demons. Whatever they are, they're native to this land." Vergil interjected. "And I'll bet that this land isn't Earth."

" _And you meant to say on Remnant._ " Dante imitated Weiss's remark from earlier in a falsetto voice. "I think we all got zapped to an alien planet, or an alternate reality, or something." He listed with a wave of his hand, his hands coming to rest on his waist.

"How?" Lady asked in disbelief.

"Perhaps its because the portal between our world and the demons was meant to be sealed in a very specific ritual." Vergil started to explain. "Sparda used a considerable amount of his own power, the names of demons, the blood of a priestess, and two magical amulets to close the gate and seal all demons in Hell. The portal opened when the names of the seven sins were given back to them, your blood was spilled, and our amulets came together. Just splitting the amulet back into two might have caused the gateway to become unstable, and without properly following the ritual Sparda had used two millennia ago…" Vergil motioned around them. "We ended up here, rather than back on Earth."

Dante had pulled out his amulet and let Lady look at it when Vergil had mentioned it during his explanation, then put it back away. "By the way, how did you end up here?" He asked.

"I don't know. I'd just killed Arkham, and then I was going to head back down the tower when suddenly everything went white. I came to, and almost got mauled when you and those two girls found me." She answered.

"... Well, we still need to figure out what were going to tell those people up there." Dante said.

"Do we need to go up there at all? There might be some way back if we go find where we first appeared in the forest." Vergil pointed out.

Dante shrugged. "But if there's not, then we'll be lost in some alternate world. I say we get our bearings first, then come back to the forest."

"Are you three coming?"

Everyone turned to see that Yang had come back, although Blake wasn't with her. She turned to Lady a small frown covered her face. "I'm sure you aren't the only one who didn't get a partner, so let's go see who's single and ready to mingle, alright?"

With no small amount of uncertainty, they followed after Yang up the cliff side. "Yo, Headmaster! I've got someone without a partner over here." She yelled out as they approached approached the group.

Dante noticed that they were all armed, although curiously very few were wearing any kind of armor. Not that he was one to talk, but at least he had the excuse of having the ability to withstand lethal attacks thanks to his demonic heritage. Somehow, he doubted these kids had the same excuse as him. He was pulled out of his observations when an old man dressed in green approached them.

"I don't recognize you three." He said after looking them over for a moment. "What are your names?" The three glanced at each before Dante gave his, and then Lady (who got a weird look from the headmaster) and Vergil too. "Glynda?" He turned to his assistant, a woman with a riding crop. "Are they initiates too?"

After looking through her scroll, which got a weird look from the three since they'd never seen a device that advanced, she shook her head. "No one by those names are attending Beacon, Professor Ozpin." Glynda looked at the three demon hunters. "They could be from one of the nearby villages, but it seems unlikely that they would've come this close by accident. Where are you three from?"

Before Dante or Vergil could ruin the idea Lady just had, she quickly said, "Our village was destroyed yesterday, and we were heading to Beacon to find refuge." It was two half truths; Capulet had been destroyed, and they did need to find someplace that wasn't a monster infested forest to gather their bearings. She looked back at the two half demons, and they both quickly nodded.

Ozpin and Glynda's faces fell. "I'm sorry to hear that." Lady's shoulders relaxed slightly. "But Beacon is not a homeless shelter." Lady's shoulders fell completely. "We can offer some temporary aid for today, and you can escort a Huntsman or Huntress to your home in an attempt to look for survivors." Ozpin turned to Glynda, who nodded.

"I'm going to have to confiscate your weapons." She stated.

"Yeah right!"

"Absolutely not."

"Not happening."

Glynda frowned. "You three may be lost, but until we've confirmed your story, we aren't going to let armed strangers walk around freely on campus grounds."

"But you'll let them do it?" Dante asked, gesturing to the Beacon initiates. "Seems a bit unfair."

Glynda glared. "Those students have documentation and are legally enrolled into the school. For all we know you could be trying to sneak into the school in an attempt to steal supplies and knowledge. Now; your weapons."

Dante was about to say something else, but then he saw Yang standing a bit behind Glynda, looking at them warily. With a sigh, he pulled Rebellion off his back and handed it over to Glynda, doing the same with Ebony and Ivory. None of his other devil arms were still all stored in their hammer space, and with a smirk he realized he wouldn't be completely defenseless going forward. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Lady or Vergil. Glynda took both of Vergil's swords, and all of Lady's firearms. Vergil had a bit of an edge over Lady since he could summon his spectral swords, but even though they were both proficient in hand to hand combat, their true potential lay with their weapons.

When Dante and Lady handed them the black knight pieces they had picked up, Glynda raised a brow but didn't say anything. "Follow me, and don't go out of my sight." She told them. Rolling her eyes, Lady and the others did as they were told.

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

Hours later, Ozpin and Glynda found themselves in the former's office, the confiscated weapons on the headmaster's desk.

"They aren't on any files from any of the kingdoms or known settlements. They don't have any identification on them. DNA tests gave us nothing. Usually there's some kind of information, even on those born outside of the kingdoms, but…" Glynda trailed off, sighing and running a hand through her hair.

"Yes, it is strange. As strange as not combining melee and ranged weapons, despite being common practice for centuries. Usually people don't do that because they lack the funds, or the skill, to do so. But all of these weapons are really high quality, despite their simplicity." Ozpin noted. "So it seems that we have some unwelcome guests." Glynda nodded. Ozpin pulled out his scroll, dialing Professor Port. He'd left the three under Port's supervision, and they'd been taken to the infirmary when Yang had pointed out that Lady was injured. "Hello, Peter. Any new developments with our three intruders?"

"None so far, sir. They've bickered a bit, but it wasn't about anything worth noting. Just simple bantering between children." Port responded. "Have you come to any conclusions about what should be done with them?"

"... Not yet, though I believe I will have a decision tomorrow." Despite the mystery surrounding them, Ozpin had been made aware of the fact that they had retrieved the black knight pieces, and that they had fought alongside the newly minted team RWBY and made it all the way back to Beacon Cliff after fighting through the Emerald Forest.

"Very well. I'll keep watch on them overnight." Port said.

"Thank you. I'll leave you to it." Ozpin said, disconnecting the call. When he saw the strange look Glynda was giving him, he smiled. "I'd like to get a second opinion."

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

In the infirmary, Lady was upright in bed, fresh bandages applied over proper stitches. Dante and Vergil were sitting down, Vergil looking much moodier than Dante, who looked extremely bored. Not that Lady could blame him, being stuck in bed and all. What was really weird was the old, aptly named man Port who had shown up and told them he was going to keep an eye on them. He'd stepped out a minute ago to answer a phone call, and it was the first time since appearing in this world that the three had been alone.

"So, we breaking out of here, or what?" Dante asked casually, looking between the two. "The longer we sit here, the less likely we are to find some way back in the forest should that way back exist."

"We might be trapped here." Vergil said simply. "If my theory is true, then we're going to have follow in Father's footsteps and find some way to create a tower that serves as the link between the two worlds." He sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Well, isn't there some way to open a portal to Hell?" Lady asked. "Maybe we could fight our way through Hell and back to our own world."

Dante laughed. "Yeah right. Even if we could get into Hell, who knows how long we'd be stuck there? Not that I mind getting my hands dirty, but I'm not gonna poke the bear unless I'm getting paid. Besides…" He turned to Vergil and narrowed his eyes, but kept his smirk. " _I_ don't know any of those creepy rituals to open a gate to Hell."

"The only ritual I concerned myself with was the one regarding Temen-Ni-Gru." Vergil said as he frowned at his younger brother. "I'm not of any more help than you are."

"And when is he ever of help?" Lady muttered, leaning back into the bed.

"Not often." Vergil answered.

"Hey!"

Even though she did find the situation a little funny, Lady didn't laugh, or even smile. Everything was settling in; her father was dead, she had no family, and as she looked out and saw the shattered moon, she realized that she was on a completely different world and probably had no way of getting back. "You two, look." She motioned to the window.

Dante and Vergil turned, then their eyes widened. "How do you think that happened?" Dante asked with a whistle. Vergil shrugged, and Lady didn't respond. Instead she closed her eyes, hoping that when she woke up she'd be back on Earth and everything would be back to normal.

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

After waking up, unpacking, cleaning, and replacing the beds with bunk beds, team RWBY was ready to start their day. "So we have a few classes together today; at nine o'clock its Grimm Studies with Professor Port-"

"Did you say nine? It's 8:55 you dunce!" Weiss shouted, running to the door and flinging it open.

"Uh, to class!" Ruby shouted, and the four members ran out after her. And then ran into her since she had stopped just outside of the door and a few steps down the hall. They all fell down together, and Ruby whined, "Hey, what was that for?"

"Good morning students."

Everyone looked up from the floor to see Ozpin looking down at them with a smile.

"Oh, headmaster, good morning!" Ruby said, standing up and brushing her uniform, the other girls following suit. "Is there something you need?" She asked when Ozpin just stood there in silence.

"Yes, actually. Follow me."

Exchanging confused glances, the four followed after him. A few minutes later, they found themselves in the infirmary wing. Ozpin stopped outside one of the windows, and looking through it the members of team RWBY could see that Lady was laying in a bed, with Dante and Vergil sitting off to the side in chairs, while Glynda kept watch over the three of them. "You four were the ones that found them and brought them back with you, so I'd like to know what you think of them."

Blake frowned. "Well, when Lady saw Vergil, she almost attacked him. And Dante was the one that had to calm her down, though he and Vergil don't seem to get along either." She said. "So, I guess those three aren't friends."

"But they're good fighters!" Ruby added. "They took care of a Deathstalker without assistance, and there was only three of them. And that's pretty cool considering they have pretty simple weapons." She crossed her arms over chest.

"Why are you asking us, headmaster?" Yang inquired.

Ozpin took a sip from his mug before answering. "Well, they aren't on any records of any kind, and despite Lady's claims that their home was destroyed, she can't seem to give us an exact location of where this home is. Not to mention we haven't received any distress calls from villages or settlements around the kingdom in the past week."

"So, what are you going to do?" Ruby asked. "Enroll them in the school?"

"Hmm, not quite. It's true, they haven't caused any problems for us since yesterday. But despite the lack of information we have on them, they haven't been keen on sharing much other than their names." Ozpin turned to look at the group. "But I can't say for sure what I should do with them. I don't think handing them over to the police would be a good idea, but they seem too uncertain as to what they would do if they just left Beacon."

"Then enroll them into Beacon." Ruby said.

"What?" Blake and Weiss asked at the same time.

"That way, they have a place to stay, and you can keep an eye on them in case they get up to anything." Ruby explained.

Ozpin gaze switched between Ruby's eyes. "Alright. Miss Rose, if you'll come with me." He pushed open the door, and the students filled into the room behind him. "Hello, Lady. How is your leg?" He asked.

"It's better… Thanks." She answered. "What are you four doing here?" She directed the question to team RWBY.

"I brought them here to help me with a choice I was having making, and so…" Ozpin's face straightened, and his posture become more upright. "If you three have nowhere to go, and won't tell us what you're doing here, then we're going to keep you on as students at Beacon."

"Dude, if you think we're going to take classes then-"

"I don't. You won't be like traditional students." Ozpin cut off Dante with a sharp look. "Instead, you are going to be a shadow to team RWBY. Until you decide to explain what your purpose is here, you won't be leaving school grounds."

"What about our weapons?" Vergil asked.

"Unless students are preparing for a mission or training, all weapons are kept in a secure storage. I've gone ahead and placed your weapons there; should you have dire need of them, team RWBY will assist you, though I warn you: they will not leave the storage unless it is an emergency." He glanced behind him to the four girls as well. "Now that that's settled, we can begin the enrollment paperwork."

Dante groaned, and even Vergil looked slightly annoyed. "Get over it, you two." Lady said, though she couldn't stop herself from sounding annoyed either.

"Alright then." Ozpin said with a smile. He turned to team RWBY and told them, "I've let Professor Port know that you'll be late to his class, and to excuse. So, I suggest you don't tarry."

Team RWBY's eyes widened, and they thanked Ozpin and ran out of the room.


	3. Settling In

Ozpin sighed as he looked at the forms that the three stowaways had handed to him. Almost every box had been marked "N/A", aside from the names, weapons, and medical history boxes. None of the three had marked down what their semblance was, and Ozpin couldn't discern if they were telling the truth or lying. _"I just can't seem to shake this feeling about them, like I want to trust them but something big is in the way."_ Taking a sip from his mug, he neatly stacked the papers and lay them in his lap. "I thought you said you were from a nearby village, but you haven't marked down where we can find it."

Lady stiffened, and Dante went noticeably still. The only one who didn't react was Vergil. "We are." Lady said. "Er, were." She corrected. "And you can't find it because it's... gone." She added.

Ozpin rolled the forms into tubes, then stood up. "Trust is a two way street, you three. If you wish to receive help, you mustn't be so secretive."

"Even if we told you the truth, you wouldn't believe us." Lady muttered.

"And why is that?"

No one answered, and Lady turned her head towards Dante. _"Now, get out of my way, or there'll be some consequences!"_ His words before their battle rang through her head, and she was reminded of how he'd turned into a full fledged demon in order to tank explosions from the grenades and rockets she had used against him. _"The only piece of evidence to support the truth would probably get us killed."_ She mused, crossing her arms over her chest. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ozpin shake his head before he turned to leave.

"Now what?" Vergil asked when the door clicked shut. "Go get our weapons and battle our way out of here and back to the forest?"

"Nah." Dante put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes as he leaned back in his chair.

Vergil and Lady looked at each, then back to Dante. A palpable silence filled the room, and then Dante opened an eye to look at the others. "What good would that do us?" The other two both started to speak, and then Dante stood and motioned for them to be silent. "Look, as much as I'd rather not say it, I think Vergil's right. Screwing up a pretty specific and powerful ritual to close a portal to hell might've landed us here, and if we can't get to the tower to re-open the portal, we're stuck here."

"Surely this world has its own equivalent of hell. Maybe we can screw up a hell portal closing ritual here and…" Vergil snapped his fingers to end his sentence.

"And unleash a bunch of demons in this world!?" Dante asked.

"Maybe you haven't noticed, but this world seems to have its fair share of problems already." Lady pointed out.

"And what's your point? Do you plan on staying here and helping?" Vergil shot back.

Lady tossed the covers aside and stood up. "If you think I'm just going to let you-"

"Hey, knock it off!" Dante shouted, getting in between the two of them. "Lady, I don't like this anymore than you, but he's-"

"Be quiet!" Lady pointed a finger at Vergil. "How many people are dead because of him? Because of what he did!?" She turned to glare at the elder twin. "For all we know, the tower could still be standing back home, the portal could still be open, demons could _still_ be getting out, and people could _still be dying_! Why are you defending him!?"

The door opened before Dante or Vergil could respond, and Glynda walked through. "What in the world are you all shouting for?" She looked between the three, and the aggressive stances didn't escape her notice. "Whatever is going on between you two-" She motioned to Lady and Vergil, "-needs to be dropped. Now. This kind of behaviour will not be tolerated, whether you're official students _or_ guests of the academy." Relaxing her shoulders, she walked over to Lady. "You should still be resting. That wound on your leg isn't going to heal if you don't allow it time to." Turning to the twins she straightened. "Follow me."

Dante turned to Vergil, then to Lady and shrugged. "See you later." As they walked into the hall, he turned to see that Lady was getting back into bed, though she didn't look any less angry. He sighed, then asked Glynda, "Where are we going?"

"Ozpin has asked me to give you a brief tour of the grounds, and then I'll show you to your room."

"My room?"

"Yes." Glynda responded. "Lady won't be in that hospital room forever, and even if she was, you two wouldn't be able to stay there all the time. Especially not Vergil." She shook her head before continuing. "As to how long you'll be staying, I can't say. Now come along."

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

As Glynda showed the two brothers around, neither asked many questions or spoke. Glynda hadn't been lying when she said the tour would be short; since none of the three were going to take classes, they'd only been shown where Ozpin's office, the library, and the mess hall were located. They finally ended their tour at the dorms, and as they walked through the halls Glynda stopped in front of one of the doors. "This is where you'll be staying during your time here at Beacon. Team RWBY is two doors down, and they'll have access to your room at all times. Rest assured they… _shouldn't_...trespass without reason, so you'll have your privacy. Here are your scrolls, they're on loan from the school so don't break them." When she handed the two objects to them, she was greeted with a blank stare. She quickly showed them how to use them, pointing out key features before continuing. "The password to your room is B3acon#." Putting the password into her scroll, the door unlocked.

Stepping inside, the two noticed the four beds, as well as some clothes that had been laid out. Two male school uniforms and one female school uniform had been prepared. "That door is to the bathroom. Are there any questions?"

"Do we have to wear this?" Dante asked picking up one of the shirts.

"No, you don't. However, _you_ may appreciate some more clothing beyond a torn jacket that smells like blood." Glynda wrinkled her nose. "If that will be all, don't get scarce. Ozpin will want to speak with you and your friend later today."

Vergil picked up the set of clothes that Dante hadn't touched, laying his scroll on the bed in its place. He walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind him, setting the clothes on the sink. Aside from the four different coloured toothbrushes, the bathroom was very reminiscent of a hotel bathroom; small washcloths, white towels stacked on a rack next to the shower, toilet paper wrapped in plastic, and very small bottles of hand soap, shampoo, and conditioner. Since it was so sparsely filled with cleaning supplies, Vergil guessed that the students enrolled would bring their own items since they would be staying here all semester. Undressing and turning on the water, he stepped inside. Dante wasn't the only one who needed a shower; the long night and multiple battles to the top of the tower had left him in need of one as well.

Outside of the bathroom, Dante fiddled with his scroll, though his mind was on other things. Specifically, Vergil. He wondered if Lady was right, if back home people were still in danger because of Vergil's actions. _"I tried to do the right thing, the night we first separated."_ Sighing, Dante remembered how his mother had told him to hide, and how his brother had told him the same thing before running out to protect their mom. It was years before he saw his brother again, and it had resulted in them battling over their amulets once again. A fight that Dante had lost. _"I will never suffer that humiliation again."_ Dante pulled out his amulet and thought to himself, _"Does he even need more power? Doesn't he realize how tough he is to kill already?_ I _was barely able to fight him to a standstill, and that was after he beat me at the top of the tower."_ The water shut off in the bathroom, and Dante quickly put his amulet back in his pocket.

The door opened, and Vergil stepped out, dressed in the Beacon academy uniform. "You look like you're going to a job interview." Dante snickered. Vergil just rolled his eyes, then grabbed his scroll and turned to the door. "Hey, where are-"

"The library, to do research." Vergil said without looking back, closing the door behind him.

Dante was left in silence. Grabbing his clothes and heading into the shower, he was at a rare loss as to what to do. In the forest, Vergil had killed one of those Grimm creatures that had snuck up him, then conceded to work with Lady… for a time, that was. Vergil wasn't being outwardly hostile… to anyone weirdly enough, and Dante couldn't be sure if that was only because of their current situation or not. _"This just keeps getting better and better."_

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

Ozpin walked through the halls of his academy, and he could hear people arguing further down. Raising a brow, he walked towards the source and found that Weiss and Ruby were arguing, and Weiss said that she wasn't willing to be on a team that was lead by Ruby, and that he had made a mistake before walking off, leaving a sullen Ruby behind. "That didn't seem to go very well." He noted, causing the young girl to turn around.

"Was she right? Did you make a mistake?" Ruby asked.

The two talked, Ozpin pointing out how little time had passed and trying to get Ruby to understand that being a leader wasn't just about issuing orders. The young girl seemed reassured after their talk, though not entirely resolved. "Before you go, there is something I need you to do for me."

"What is it?"

Ozpin pulled out a scroll and handed it to Ruby. "I need you to take that to Lady in the infirmary, and show her how to use it if need be. It's on loan from the school, so be careful with it." He received a nod and continued. "Also, you and your team are going to meet with me, Glynda, and Lady and her friends later, sometime after dinner. We need to have a discussion about what needs to be done with them."

"Professor, what do you plan to do?" Ruby asked.

"Well, as long as they're here, I plan on having them do community service. Pick up trash, help prepare food for the cafeteria, that sort of thing. However, I'm more concerned with their future rather than their present." Ruby tilted her head in confusion, and Ozpin continued. "As I'm sure you're aware, they're… well, they aren't refusing to cooperate, nor do they seem intent on causing trouble, but they're still keeping things from me. I can't allow them to stay here without knowing what they plan to do. As heartless as it may be, I told them before Beacon isn't a homeless shelter, and I meant what I said. At worst, they'll have to be handed over to the police and put in Juvenile Prison."

"And at best?" Ruby asked.

"They come clean, and we can work with them from there." Ozpin answered. "Now I believe you have a task to complete, and I need to speak with Professor Port. Apparently he snuck a Grimm on campus without telling anyone."

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

The door to Lady's room opened up, and she turned to see Ruby walking in, looking downtrodden. "What's the matter? They assign homework already?" Lady laughed weakly, leaning her head back and looking up to the ceiling tiles. "I hated when my teachers did that to me." She mumbled, thinking about how long ago it had been since she'd been in school, and how long ago it _felt_.

Ruby gave a half hearted "ha-ha" and then sat down at the foot of Lady's bed. "No, it's my partner, Weiss. She's acting… Well, I mean…" Ruby shook her head and then pulled something out of her skirt pocket, handing it Lady. "Ozpin told me to give you that, and he also said to be careful since it's on loan from the school. Do you know how to use it?" She asked, and then quickly showed Lady to how to use her scroll. "Ozpin's going to be here later, and he wanted my team here as well."

"How come?" Lady asked.

"We're going to have to discuss what to do with you while your staying here, as well as how long you'll be staying here." Ruby answered. She hesitated, looking down at the ground. "If you don't want to end up in Juvie, then I think you should give him something to work with."

"Juvie? Ha! I haven't done anything wrong."

"That may be true, but if you don't have any family or a home to go to, then Ozpin is legally obligated to hand you over to the police." Ruby informed her. "And you can't stay here, because you aren't actually a student."

Lady groaned. _"This is great, really. Fan-freaking-tastic. If I get put in prison then I'm going to mount Vergil's head on the wall."_ She turned to Ruby. "Well, thanks for letting me know, I guess."

Ruby nodded. "You're welcome, and sorry to bring bad news. Get well soon, okay?" She gave a wave and left.

-The Devil hunters in Remnant-

Dante caught up with Vergil in the library, the latter surrounded by several books. "Find anything interesting?"

Vergil looked up, and saw that Dante was wearing the school uniform as well, minus the black school coat and tie, giving him a more casual appearance. "A lot, actually. Take a look at this." He titled one of the books towards his brother. "See this map?"

Dante sat down, grabbing the book, his eyes widening when he saw the continent layout. "Well, that settles it. We've made first contact with aliens. What about those creatures that attacked us?"

"Those black creatures in the forest have a name. They're called the creatures of Grimm, and they've apparently been a blight on this world for as long as mankind has been here. No one knows where they come from, they only attack humans, a million different kinds of Grimm exist, and they're hard to capture or study." Vergil exposited. "There are four safe kingdoms across the world, but some small villages exist here and there. They tend to get destroyed, however."

"That explains why there are kids getting trained to fight against them." Dante noted. "If most of the world isn't safe, then you're going to have to defend what you can."

Vergil tilted another book towards Dante. "They have some help. There's some sort of magical material on this world called Dust. It comes in a bunch of different forms, and it can be manipulated into others. It's used for everything, from powering cities to fighting Grimm."

"Magic, huh? That's a game changer." Dante mused as he looked at the book on Dust he'd been handed.

"That's not all. Look to your right." Vergil commanded.

Dante did so, his brow knitted together as he spotted a girl wearing a bunny ear headband.

"That's not a headband." Vergil said, as though he could read Dante's mind. "She's something called a faunus. Some of the humans on this world apparently have animal traits; tails, claws, wings, animal ears, and pretty much anything else you can think of. It's been the cause of race issues for a long time, now."

Dante looked at the pile of books on the table, groaning quietly. "We've got a lot of studying to do, huh? Awesome."


	4. The Plan

Blake and Yang left Professor Peach's class, the brawler groaning along with several other students. "Our first day and we have homework already?" She adjusted her backpack and shook her head. "Well, let's just get started on it before we get some dinner. Let's head to the library." Blake just nodded and the two walked in peaceful silence for a while until they had arrived at their destination. "Alright, let's find some textbooks on flora in the Emerald Forest, and figure out what would be safe to eat while out on a mission." As they made their way through the library looking for a table to study at, two white haired heads stood out, and Yang tapped Blake on the shoulder and pointed. "Dante, Vergil! What are you two doing here?"

Dante turned and lifted a hand in greeting. "Learning, I guess. You have classwork or something?"

"Yeah, for our wilderness survival class." Yang told him. "Hey, aren't you from outside the kingdoms? Maybe you can help us."

Glancing at his brother, Dante shook his head. "Sorry, but I can't even tell you how to pitch a tent. I was mostly concerned with fighting Grimm." He lied. Sort of. His concern was hunting down demons, and he really didn't know anything about living in the wilderness. He'd grown up in the suburbs and city.

Yang sighed, and Blake said, "You're not getting off that easily." She glanced at the two half devils and noticed the large amount of books on the table they were at. _"I wonder what they're researching… I thought they weren't taking classes?"_ Blake stepped closer and looked at the titles; history books, books on Dust, the different types of Grimm… they were 'learning' about a lot, apparently. _"They did say they're from outside the kingdoms, so I guess they haven't had much formal schooling."_ Blake sat her books down on the table and sat down, turning to Dante as his scroll started buzzing.

Picking it up, he saw that Lady was calling him. Earlier when Glynda had shown them how to work the scrolls, he saw that both Vergil and Lady were already in his contacts list, and he guess that Lady must've gotten her own at some point. "Hello?" He answered.

"Hey, where are you?" Lady asked on the other end.

"Verg and I are in the library, doing research." He glanced at his older brother, who still had his nose in his a book.

"I'd rather be doing that than be stuck in bed for another day." She said. "Only thing I can do is watch the news and think."

"Do you want me to read you a bedtime story?"

"Ha ha ha, no. Listen, while I was sitting here thinking about how to get back, I started to wonder if maybe we weren't the only outsiders here." Lady paused for a moment, and when Dante didn't catch on she elaborated, "I mean, what if demons got zapped to this world along with us? We might be able to capture one and get a way back home."

Dante's eyes widened. "Yeah, you're right! I mean most dem- of them are stupid, so we might not get an engaging conversation, but-" He snapped his fingers to get his brothers attention, "-They worked for my brother, at least kind of. Maybe he can order them around and he'll listen."

"Maybe." Lady agreed, though she didn't sound thrilled. "We'll have to find one first. And hey: Ozpin is going to want to talk to us about our future here later today. Apparently we'll be doing community service, and if we don't give him a convincing reason to keep us here then he'll hand us over to the police. We might end up in an juvie, or an orphanage."

Now it was Dante's turn to groan. "Well great. I don't really want to go through all that again."

"What?" Lady asked.

"Nothing. Listen, I'll let Vergil know what we're thinking." He dodged the question. "We'll see you later alright?"

"...Alright."

The call ended, and Vergil stood up from the desk, leading him and Dante out of earshot of Blake and Yang. "Lady thinks it's possible that some demons got pulled through the collapsing portal like we did." Dante explained. "If we can find them, maybe we can force them to tell us how to get back to our world."

"Hmm… there's still the issue of navigating the underworld." Vergil pointed out. "We could do it easily, but Lady couldn't, and I'm not going to be her bodyguard."

Dante shrugged. "She can handle herself in a fight, and I can help her if need be. But she also said that if we don't give Oz a reason to keep us here as pseudo students he'll hand us over to the cops."

"So we tell him that we need to go into the forest to look for our missing villagers, since that's the narrative we're going with." Vergil said. "And convince him not to send in Huntsmen."

"Yeah, with their experience fighting Grimm they'll kill any demons they come across." Dante said sourly. "And I'll bet most demons won't be able to give us an answer in the first place, so we need to make sure to get what we can out of them before we kill them." Dante lips pulled into a frown. "You _can_ get a demon to talk, can't you?"

Vergil smirked. "Of course. Lesser demons only understand strength; establish dominance over it and you can give it orders. Whether or not they hold the knowledge we seek isn't something we'll know until we have a demon in our grasp."

Dante sighed. "Alright, I guess we've got our plan then."

At that moment, Blake came around the corner. "What are you two talking about?" She asked, keeping her face neutral. Unfortunately her body language betrayed her; her shoulders were tensed, her hands were closed into fists, her eyes were a little wider than normal, and she had her better foot forward.

Vergil noticed all of this, and said simply, "We're discussing what we're going to tell Ozpin so we don't get handed over to the police."

Blake didn't relax; she didn't trust Vergil. He reminded her of Adam. He'd done something in the past to anger Lady to the point of wanting to kill him. It seemed like Dante got along with both of them… maybe with Vergil to a lesser extent. Dante seemed like the smooth talking type, while Lady seemed unhinged. She didn't trust any of them. But with her improved hearing thanks to her faunus heritage (despite her ears being beneath the bow), she'd heard them say something about looking for someone in the Emerald Forest, and that they weren't trying to get the Huntsmen or Huntress's involved, which was suspicious sounding at best. "I don't know what you're planning, but Ozpin isn't going to let you wander around unsupervised, and you aren't going to be able to find who you're looking for without someone else knowing about it."

Dante's stomach growled loudly, stopping him or Vergil from responding. "... Is there somewhere I can eat? I've only eaten once in the last couple of days!" He laughed aloud.

It came out as so sincere that Blake couldn't stop herself from relaxing a little bit at the sheer silliness of his question. They'd only just arrived in the library, so… "Dinner won't be served in the mess hall for a couple of hours, so you'll just have to wait till then."

"Oh great… C'mon, Vergil." Dante grumbled. _"She didn't overhear everything. Otherwise she would've asked what we meant about the demons."_ Dante was sure she was thinking that the two were going to look for a person when they got the chance. _"But she's right, we're going to have to ditch whoever they send out to tag along with us. If we're given permission to leave in the first place."_ Dante chuckled to himself. _"Of course we're going whether we get permission or not."_

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

Dante was, at least, able to enjoy dinner before Ozpin called them to the infirmary. He hadn't talked much with the four girls of team RWBY because he'd been so busy eating, and Vergil hadn't talked that much either. At least Blake hadn't mentioned what she'd overheard to her teammates, but now that they were in the infirmary with Ozpin, Glynda, and Lady, he wasn't sure what she'd say. Hopefully nothing.

"Well, I've spoken with the janitorial staff, and they've agreed to treat the three of you as students on extended detention." Ozpin said. "In the morning, I'll take you to them and you two can get to work." He looked at Dante and Vergil as he spoke, then turned to Lady. "The doctors tell me that you will be discharged tomorrow, but of course you will have to take it easy for a while until your leg fully heals." He sighed, taking a sip from his mug (filled with hot cocoa rather than coffee due to the late hour) and pausing before he spoke again. "Now, I want to know who you three really are. And don't tell me you're from a destroyed village again. There haven't been any distress calls from settlements outside of the kingdom in almost two weeks. Not to mention the high quality of your weapons, a quality not normally found in simple villages. So tell me the truth, or I will hand you over to the police in one month."

Stretching out in his chair, Dante just smiled. "Yeah well, that probably wouldn't be your smartest idea, now would it?" Before Ozpin could respond Dante just said, "You'd be better off sending us back out into the forest. There are others there we might be able to find."

"Others?" Blake asked.

"Like us." Dante pointed a thumb at himself and motioned to Vergil and Lady.

"And why would you need to find others like yourself?" Ozpin asked.

"So we can get home." Dante clapped his hands together. "And out of your academy."

"You've said multiple times you don't have a home anymore." Glynda interrupted.

Dante just kept smiling, undaunted in the fact that his lie had been called out. "How about a compromise? You help us, and we tell you everything you want to know." He offered. _"Not that you'd believe us or anything, but if we get home that won't be our problem."_ He added silently.

"And why should we make this deal with you?" Ozpin asked. "Is the truth really that hard to give up? And that important?"

"You'll have to find out." Dante just said.

The room went silent, and Ozpin started thinking. _"They can't be serious. Children shouldn't be underestimated, but apparently this is something big to them. And they are asking for our help…"_ Ozpin straightened up. "And you two are in agreement?" He asked Lady and Vergil. They both nodded. _"What could they be involved in?"_

"Professor."

He turned to see that Blake had stepped forward. "Have you searched the area of the Emerald Forest where we found them?" She asked.

"Yes." Glynda answered for him. "After the initiation, we haven't picked up any human activity in the area. Just the usual wildlife and Grimm."

"Then what are you hoping to find out there?" She asked Dante.

"Ugh… I don't normally play this hard to get, but you'll find out."

"You can't seriously be considering allowing these vagrants to do what they want!" Weiss asked Ozpin.

"Weiss, they haven't done anything wrong! Just because they accidentally wandered into the initiation doesn't make them criminals." Ruby addressed her partner.

"Ruby, they're obviously keeping something from us." Yang said. "We can't just treat them like friends."

Ruby turned to her older sister with a frown, and then back to Dante. "Is it bad? This secret your keeping?"

"You expect them to answer honestly?" Blake asked under breath.

"It's not." The room went quiet and everyone looked at Dante. "But it is complicated." He added. "Although if we can find what we're looking for, we can explain everything to you." He turned towards his Ozpin, his face and posture more serious than it had been earlier. "We just need to have a look around."

Ozpin looked between the three outsiders, and saw that they all looked as serious as Dante. "What happens if you don't find who or what you're looking for?"

"Then I guess you hand us over to the police."

"Hm." Ozpin stood up. "Then this weekend, you will go with team RWBY into the Emerald Forest. They will be keeping an eye on you while you go on this search." He turned to team RWBY. "This will be your first real assignment. Do you think you can handle keeping an eye on them?"

"Yes sir!" Ruby answered without hesitation.

"Very well. Go on and get some rest, you four. You still have classes between now and Saturday. Let's go, Glynda." He grabbed the door, and the four students and his assistant exited the room. He let the door close shut on its own and let team RWBY go on ahead, taking a sip from his mug again. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Glynda watching him and let out a questioning hum.

"Why not send in an actual Hunstmen to watch over them? Why send a first year team instead?" Glynda asked.

"Because they know the first year team. If I send them in with complete strangers, the Huntsmen will be out of the loop and those three will try and sneak away the first chance they get. There's even a possibility that they may attack the Huntsmen we send with them in order to get away. I believe they'll work with team RWBY for this. Besides…" He pulled his scroll out and logged into the security network in the Emerald Forest. "The team could use some combat practice against the large Grimm that has appeared, should they come across it." A large red dot was moving slowly across his screen, and video footage showed him something that couldn't be clearly discerned through the darkness.

"Should we tell them that's a secondary objective?" Glynda asked. The Grimm in question had appeared earlier today, but it had curiously abstained from attacking the security nodes despite coming quite close to several of them already.

"No. We can send in other students or Huntsmen to hunt it down if need be. Not to mention, if they don't get along they'll just bring it right to them." He sighed, wishing that they didn't have to send in children for this, but they had made their choice coming to this academy and they knew the risks. _"And there will be seven of them to boot."_ They wouldn't be in complete danger.

"Alright, if that's what you think is best." Glynda said. "We should go." Ozpin nodded, and the two of them left the infirmary as well.

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

Lady was quiet. Dante and Vergil had just finished explaining pretty much everything they'd read about in the library. Dust, Grimm, the four kingdoms… It wasn't too much to take in in all honesty, but that didn't exactly make it easy to accept either. There was a small part of her that was actually rather intrigued; after all it wasn't often one ended up in a completely different world. She was already thinking about how she could mix Dust into her fighting style to better fight demons. A rocket that exploded into lightning sounded like fun. But she'd have to work on Kalina Ann first… "What are we going to do about Ruby and her team? They haven't finished combat training to fight the Grimm yet, so I don't think they'll do well against any demons we find."

"Which is why we'll be taking the lead." Vergil said. "If they get killed because of us, our chances of getting let out of here willingly go to zero. That'll only make things more difficult. We're going to have to be careful when we search for any demons as well; if you two accidentally kill the only demon we end up coming across…"

"Relax, we'll put the safety on our guns so we can ask questions first and then shoot later!" Dante said.

"Barbaric weapons." Vergil muttered.

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

Ruby sighed as she lay awake in bed. Her mind was still on the upcoming mission, and what it would entail. On the way back to the dorm, none of her teammates could come up with any believable explanations as to what Dante was hiding. At least, nothing was believable to her. She didn't believe they were bandits (which was what the others had agreed on), but if they were innocent refugees they wouldn't have anything to hide. The only thing she could do was wait till Saturday. That was when things would be made clear, hopefully.


	5. Calm Before the Storm

"I can't believe it!" Ruby squealed atop her bunk, swinging her legs back and forth in excitement. Weiss pushed her legs out of the way to avoid being hit as she sat down, and Ruby rolled onto her back and looked at the rest of her team upside down. "I mean, we haven't even been here a whole week and we've already got an official search and rescue mission!"

Blake shook her head. "Ruby, you need to calm down and think about this. Those three could try and betray us out there, and if we lose track of them then we're going to be in a lot of hot water with Ozpin."

"She's right." Weiss said, nodding at Blake. "We can't let those three out of our sight for a second." She made eye contact with Ruby when her leader tilted her head to the side. "Not to mention we could be helping bandit scum search for their party and end up in a fight we aren't ready for."

"Then we practice so we are ready! The mission isn't until this weekend. We wake up early and go to bed late!" Ruby said, rotating so she was laying on her stomach. But when neither of the three seemed keen on sharing her enthusiasm, she frowned. "Do you still not trust Dante and his friends?"

"No." Came the resounding response from the other three.

"Ruby." Yang stepped forward, her voice gentle. "You can't take everything someone says at face value. Just because Dante says the truth isn't bad doesn't mean… well, anything. Until we find out the truth for ourselves, we have to be cautious around them. We don't know what they're planning or what they've done in the past."

There was a pause, and then Ruby asked, "You mean Vergil and Lady?"

Blake and Yang nodded. "We told you what happened when they first met in the Emerald Forest during initiation. One of them did something to the other, and until we find out what happened and who's to blame, we can't-"

"Trust them! I get it, you're sounding like a broken record!" Ruby cut off Yang. "Gods, can't I just be excited that I get to spend some time learning on the job?"

"Since you're so excited, why don't you go ask Dante or Vergil what it is we'll be looking for?" Weiss muttered.

"Good idea!"

Yang's fast reflexes and past experience catching Ruby when she was using her semblance caused her to instinctively reach out and grab Ruby's arm before she could make it to the door. "Not right now! It's late, you can ask them in the morning."

"Oh. Heh, my bad." Ruby muttered sheepishly. "Well, we should all go to bed. And be prepared to wake up early tomorrow! I meant it when I said we would be getting some extra training in!"

That was at least one thing the team agreed on; whether it was Grimm or bandits or the three outsiders, one could never be too prepared for a fight.

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

In their room, Dante and Vergil were sitting across from each other on the beds. Neither had spoken much to each other after leaving Lady in the infirmary, but now that they were here Dante asked, "So, how are you going to get a demon to talk?"

Vergil didn't answer right away, instead choosing to finish unlacing his boots and put them to the side before he looked up. "Well, like I said earlier, defeating a demon without killing it is about all it takes. The lesser demons, like the Seven Hells, won't be able to give us anything. Typically, the physically larger a demon is, the smarter it'll be."

Dante thought to his past battles; the only time he'd talked to any demons _had_ been with larger demons like Cerberus and Beowulf, and to a lesser extent Nevan. Suddenly coming to yet another realization, he felt like smacking himself for the second time that day. He summoned Agni and Rudra, then raised them so their eyes were level with his. "Hey, I'm lifting the no talking rule! Can you two tell us anything?"

"Are those the gate guardians?" Vergil asked.

"Look Brother! It's the rude one!" Agni said.

"Yes, the one who ignored us and teleported past the gate!" Rudra agreed.

"We felt like failures!" Agni said. "We were charged by Sparda to guard the gate, and yet we were bypassed by such simple magic!"

"Apologize at once!" Rudra ordered Vergil.

Dante clicked their heads together three times. "I asked you two a question!" He reminded them through grit teeth.

There was a pause before Rudra answered. "No. We are of no help to you."

"Yes, Sparda bound us to the tower before he sealed the two worlds apart, two thousand years ago. We have no insights to offer you." Agni added.

"Nothing at all?" Dante sighed.

"No. But I believe your current path is the right one to take." Rudra told him.

"Alright. No more talking you two." Dante dismissed them, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "It was bad enough having to listen to them the first time."

"They think I teleported past them." Vergil shook his head. "I walked right through the gate they were guarding while they were busy talking to each other."

Dante laughed at the image that popped into his head. "Well, that explains why they were still alive before I got to you." His smile fell from his face pretty quickly when he remembered just how their meeting had gone down at the top of the tower. "Are you still going to try and claim Dad's power for your own?" He asked. Vergil looked at him, but didn't answer. "Because if you are, then I don't see any point in postponing our rematch any longer. We may as well just go outside and finish it now."

"Is there some reason you want to keep me from Father's power?"

Dante scoffed. "Yeah, cause I don't know what you'll do with it. Nevermind the fact that you destroyed an entire city getting to it, but if you did succeed, what were you going to do? Rule the world?"

"My ambitions aren't so primitive." Vergil almost sounded insulted. "I have nothing to gain from ruling the world."

"Then what's the plan Verg?" Dante asked. "Cause I gotta be honest, I'm having a hard time figuring it out."

Vergil just rolled his eyes and turned to lay down on his bad with back to Dante. "If you want to fight me, then go ahead and issue the challenge."

Dante just sighed, moving to center right bed so there was some space between him and his brother. _"I don't want to, you damn idiot. Why do you have to make everything difficult?"_

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

The next morning, Dante found himself in the kitchens, idly washing the dirty trays leftover from breakfast. He'd scrubbed about… oh, fifty, and had about seven hundred more to go, so he wasn't in any rush. If there was one thing he'd learned in his life, whether for better or worse, if you do a bad job the first time you (probably) won't be asked to do it a second time. They could make him do community service, but they couldn't make him do a good job. Another reason he was moving so slowly was because he hadn't gotten much sleep last night. He'd stayed awake trying to figure out what Vergil's plan could be. About the only logical conclusion he'd come to was that Vergil simply wanted the power of Sparda just _because_. There was no plan, and there was no endgame. Vergil simply wanted to be the strongest around, and claiming Sparda's power was the easiest way to go about that.

"Hey, Dante."

He turned around to see that Lady was walking towards him with a barely noticeable limp, her leg lacking the bandage that had been covering her wound. She was also dressed in the Beacon academy uniform, apparently having been to the temporary abode they'd been granted. "Morning." He greeted, too tired to try and give her some quip as a greeting.

Lady looked at the mountain of dirty trays next to Dante. "Looks like you'll be busy all day." Dante just sighed, and Lady smirked for a moment before her face fell. "We need to talk about Vergil."

" _Can we not?"_ Dante stopped what he was doing, shook his arms to get some of the water off, then turned to Lady and crossed his arms. "What about him?"

"When are we going to kill him?" Lady asked, not bothering to beat around to beat the bush. "You've had plenty of opportunities to finish the job already. Why are you letting him live?"

Dante shrugged. "Vergil hasn't given me a reason to attack him yet. He's had plenty of time to turn on us, or run off and grab his sword, but he hasn't. I'm not going to try and kill him without a good reason." He held up a hand to silence Lady's retort. "And I will make sure he answers for his crime of summoning the tower. But if I don't have to kill him, I won't."

"Do you remember when we found my father on the ground, and I thought he was dead?" Lady asked after a pause. When Dante nodded she continued. "He wasn't. Obviously. And all it took was a few honeyed words and I fell for his lies about being manipulated by your brother." Lady's fists clenched at her sides. "It was because of me that things escalated the way they did. I had the chance to kill him, to stop him from using my blood and opening the portal. I failed. Take some words of advice from me: Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement. There's nothing Vergil can do to make up for destroying an entire city, and as a result possibly trapping us on an alien world for the rest of our lives. He has to die. If you won't kill him, I will."

"Oh really? How do you plan to do that when you couldn't even kill me?" Dante asked seriously, then took the chance to gloat. "Vergil's not as strong as I am, but he's no pushover."

Lady shook her head. "I'm sure I'll figure something out. No demon's been able to kill me yet." With that she walked off, leaving Dante alone.

Dante shook his head, turning back around and getting back to his task. _"She's right."_ Dante admitted to himself. _"Just because he's my brother doesn't change what he did. And he had no issue trying to kill me to get what he wanted."_ He tossed aside the tray he was cleaning and grabbed another one. _"I'd only been trying to beat him before. I'd finally been ready to kill him before we got sent here. What changed?"_

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

Lady found the gym after asking for directions from one of the students she passed by. Regardless of finding demons or fighting Vergil, there were still creatures of Grimm in the forest and she needed to be ready for that fight. No demon had killed her yet, but that didn't mean she'd made it through the Temen-Ni-Gru without a scratch. Plus she felt the need to do something active after having been forced to lay down for the past couple of days.

Just as she was about to begin stretching, a familiar voice called out, "You aren't really going to work out in your school uniform, are you?"

Lady turned around to see that Yang was standing there, dressed in appropriate workout attire. She looked down at her clothes, then back up to Yang and shrugged. "I don't have anything else to wear."

"Well, why don't I lend you something to wear instead?" Yang asked, stepping closer and lowering her voice a little to add, "That way people don't give you weird looks the entire time you're here."

Whether people were giving her weird looks was none of her concern, but if Yang was offering… "Alright. Let's go." It didn't take long for Yang to lead her to her dorm, but when she what was inside Lady raised a brow. "Uh, those bunk beds are not safe."

Yang laughed. "They haven't given out yet!" She turned around after reaching into a suitcase in the closet. "Here, you can change in the bathroom right there."

Lady thanked her, returning a moment later with her school uniform in her left hand. "Let me put this away and then we can go back."

Yang nodded and followed her, walking down the hall and watching as Lady tossed her clothes onto the far left bed. "Where are Dante and Vergil?" She asked when she saw the room was empty.

"Dante is washing dishes and I don't know or care where Vergil is." Lady told her, closing the door and walking back down the hall.

Yang didn't follow after her, and when Lady turned to look back at her she asked hesitantly, "What happened between you two? Why do you hate him so much?"

Lady's face fell. "Vergil is responsible for the deaths of a lot of people. At some point I'm going to have to kill him for what he's done. Whether we find what we we're looking for in the forest or not, this truce isn't going to last."

"If he's done something that horrible, why haven't you told us, or Ozpin!?" Yang asked, her voice raising in shock of the revelation.

"Because Vergil is out of the league of everyone besides me and Dante. We're the only two that can stop him, and if anyone else gets in the way they'll only end up dead." Lady said. "He's our problem, and no one else's."

"Then why tell me?" Yang's gaze lowered to the ground.

"Because Dante doesn't seem keen on doing what needs to be done." Lady sighed. "And I need you to know the deal so you don't end up on Vergil's side when we end up fighting. Dante is-" She hesitated, but continued, "-A good person. He helped me once before. You can trust us two, but Vergil is evil." She stepped forward and placed a hand on Yang's shoulder. "Sorry to dump this on you. I know that it's a lot to take in."

Yang looked up. "It's alright. At least now I know why two don't get along. Should I- Do you want me to tell my team about this? About Vergil?"

Lady shrugged. "That's up to you. If you think they can handle it, then go for it. As long as you're sure they won't try and fight Vergil." Yang looked to the ground, and Lady bent down to make sure Yang looked at her. "I'm serious, Yang. Vergil is dangerous, if you and your team go up against him it'll be disastrous."

Yang nodded. "Alright. I believe you. I won't tell my team." She gently moved Lady's hand off her shoulder. "C'mon, let's go back to the gym. It's cold in this hallway."

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

After being handed a pair of gloves, a roll of trash bags, and a cart, Vergil had been told to check every trash on campus and replace it if it was more than half full. Then, he'd been sent on his way after being told what buildings to check in what order. In most circumstances, he'd have refused, but this was the first time he was going to be alone after having come to Remnant. It would be a good time to reflect, and to plan. Doing a simple chore was a small price to pay for that, even if he didn't plan on prioritizing it.

As he thought about the future, he realized how much depended on getting back to Earth. If they couldn't find a demon to manipulate, then he wasn't sure what path he would take in this new world. Fighting the Grimm could be an option, but he wasn't keen on becoming a Huntsman in order to do that. But it wasn't like he planned on opening a bed and breakfast, either. However, the option of giving up and settling down wasn't in the cards; he'd search for a way back to Earth until his dying day, regardless of what his future here might hold.

But when he got back to Earth, Dante would still be there, and his father's power would still be out of his reach. If Dante refused to hand over his amulet, Vergil would take it. In their last true battle, Dante had caught him off guard with the new weapons he'd acquired on his way up the tower, constantly switching up his offence and catching him by surprise. But now that he knew what Dante was equipped with, he would be prepared for their next fight. If they hadn't been interrupted after defeating Arkham, then he would've won. He knew it.

" _You have lost… because you underestimated humans."_

Vergil frowned as he remembered what Arkham had said to him, shortly before claiming the power of Sparda for himself. Humans had nothing to do with it; he'd failed to make sure that Arkham was truly dead after attacking him. He'd been blinded by how close he was to completing his goal. He'd failed to claim his father's power because he'd relied on someone else, and as a result he'd had vital information kept from him and been humiliated by a fool dressed as a clown. The two fights with Dante had taken their toll on him too, he hated to admit. Just because he could defeat his brother didn't mean it would be easy.

" _Sparda wasn't powerful because he was a demon, or because he was some goody two shoes, he was strong simply because he did the right thing, Vergil. No matter how hard you try, you won't be like father because you don't care about what's right and wrong. But if you did, maybe-"_

Dante's words from their last fight rang through his head, clear as day. His brother was naive. Right and wrong had nothing to do with Sparda's legend. Sparda overcame Hell itself because he was the strongest demon in existence, regardless of his choice to side with Humanity. And nothing proved this more to Vergil than the fact that Dante had lost the fight at the top of the tower; if his brother hadn't forsaken his demonic heritage and chosen to continue as a human, he would've been much more of a threat. But Vergil had won that battle, and he knew why: He was much stronger than Dante, and that was all there was to it.

When they went out to the forest, he would deal with Lady and his brother, and team RWBY if they interfered. He didn't need any of them to move forward with his plan.

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

At dinner that night, Yang found that she was constantly glancing at Vergil who was sitting on Dante's left. If he noticed, he didn't say anything. And Lady wasn't acting any differently to him either, sitting on the other side of Dante and calmly eating her meal. She must've already come to terms with the fact that she would have to fight him to the death, because Yang sure hadn't. She knew that if she _had_ to kill someone, if there was no other way of stopping them then she could probably do it. She knew even in a hypothetical she would regret it. She didn't want to kill anyone and no matter the circumstances she neither could nor would derive pleasure from it.

"So, Dante…" Ruby said around a mouthful of food, causing Yang to look to her sister, "What should we be expecting this weekend?"

"We're going to look around the forest for anyone we can find or anything that looks like it doesn't belong there. It should be pretty obvious when we find what we're looking for."

"Should we be expecting combat?" Weiss asked.

"Maybe." Dante told her. "I can tell you now we aren't looking for anything friendly, so you might as well forget about going on a nice hike."

Yang glanced at Lady, before looking back at Dante. "So can you give us anything more than 'not friendly things that don't belong there', or…?"

Dante took a drink before telling her, "Moving statues. Humanoid creatures with weapons, most likely a scythe. Animals big and small that will attack on sight, that aren't Grimm or native wildlife. That sort of thing."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Vergil asked.

"Oh yeah! If we find what we're looking for, these creatures or the Humanoids, don't kill them. We need them alive." Dante added.

"But if we end up separated, you _can_ kill them. Don't risk your life trying to help us." Lady said.

"We're not going to end up separated." Weiss declared. "And if you try and ditch us, we'll find you. Ozpin has given us a duty to fulfill, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it!" Dante picked up a pea and tossed it at Weiss, where it went down her throat and caused her to start coughing. "We're not going to try and run away. If we were going to do that, we would've done it back when we all first met in the forest." He pointed out.

"Moving statues? Humanoid creatures?" Blake whispered to Yang, causing the blonde to turn towards her. "What are they talking about?"

Yang shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we'll find out what they mean Saturday."

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

Saturday came soon.

Dante, Lady, and Vergil had their weapons returned to them, and after spending a moment inspecting them, got on board an airship large enough to transport the three of them, Ozpin, and team RWBY into the forest. After a few minutes of travelling from Beacon Ozpin said, "This is your stop. Be warned, we've been tracking a large Grimm in the area, and it may get in your way. But it isn't your priority. Ruby, you're in charge, but you and Dante will work together to help him and his friends find what they're looking for."

"Yes sir!"

"Alright, off you go." Ozpin said.

The seven fighters jumped out of the airship and landed in the forest below. "Okay, Dante and Yang, you two are on point. Lady, Weiss, Blake, cover them. Vergil and I will bring up the rear."

Everyone got into position, and Dante and Yang began leading the way through the forest.


End file.
